KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jackson County and Kansas City are among 33 jurisdictions in Missouri that were recently removed from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services' hot spot advisory list.
The hot spot advisory list warns any jurisdiction (counties and the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City) that has a 14-day positivity rate above the statewide rate that it is at risk of becoming a COVID-19 hot spot.
Clay and Platte counties were not on the advisory list. Area counties that remain on the list include Cass, Lafayette and Johnson counties.
Local breakdown
The DHSS COVID-19 dashboard shows the public a seven-day positivity rate instead of the 14-day rate that the state uses to issue the advisories.
Based on that data, as of Nov. 2, Missouri had a positivity rate of 6.7%.
When looking at Jackson County, it currently remains above the seven-day state average with a positivity rate of 8.3%. It's possible that means the county could go back on the advisory list depending on how the 14-day average the state tracks shapes up.
Kansas City itself stands at a 6.5% average, placing it below the seven-day state rate.
Clay County, which hasn't been in a recent advisory, sits above the seven-day average at 7.3%. The same is the case with Platte County with a rolling seven-day rate of 9.3%.
Looking at the three other Missouri counties in the area that remain on the list, Cass County sits at 9.6%, Johnson County at 6.7% and Lafayette County at 7.6% for the seven-day average case rate.
So what does this all mean?
It means that no local jurisdiction is quite out of the woods yet. Based on the seven-day positivity rate, most of the Kansas City area sits at or above the state's average rate.
Since the 14-day data is kept by the state, it will take another week to add this week's data to that average and determine who goes off or on the list.
Other factors
Something else to note is that of all the jurisdictions in the area, only Jackson County and Kansas City currently have a mask mandate in place. Though also of note is that those jurisdictions have a higher population concentration, so it's hard to tell if that really plays a role in the current rates.
This also does not take into account the COVID-19 vaccination rate of each county, which stands as follows as of Nov. 2:
- Cass County: 48.3% initiated, 44.1% fully vaccinated
- Clay County: 43% initiated, 39.7% fully vaccinated
- Jackson County: 52.8% initiated, 47.9% fully vaccinated
- Johnson County: 33.9% initiated, 30.3% fully vaccinated
- Kansas City: 55.7% initiated, 48.7% fully vaccinated
- Lafayette County: 44.4% initiated, 40.7% fully vaccinated
- Platte County: 41% initiated, 37.2% vaccinated
Looking at that list, Jackson County and Kansas City have the highest vaccination rates, which could play into them being removed from the advisory list.
Johnson County has the lowest vaccination rate and remains on the hot spot list, but Platte and Clay counties have the next lowest vaccination rates and are not on the advisory list.
The bottom line is, being removed from the advisory list doesn't mean anyone is in the clear.
